Marco Salemi appointed EPI Associate Director for Research Initiatives

The Emerging Pathogens Institute appoints five new associate directors » Emerging Pathogens Institute » University of Florida (ufl.edu)

Marco Salemi

Professor Marco Salemi, Ph.D., serves as EPI Associate Director for Research Initiatives. In this role, Salemi is developing strategies to increase collaborations on large-scale extramural funding opportunities. He aims to accelerate growth in strategic research areas, with a specific emphasis on AI initiatives. He will also foster mentorship programs for new and junior EPI investigators.

Salemi is a professor in the UF College of Medicine Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine. He holds the Stephany W. Holloway University Chair for research in chronic and infectious diseases and was a Marie-Curie Fellow at the Rega Institute of the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. He received his doctorate in science from the Catholic University of Leuven in 1999 and has worked as a postdoctoral scientist at the University of California – Irvine with Walter M. Fitch, one of the founding fathers of molecular phylogenetics.

Salemi is internationally recognized as an expert in the field of molecular evolution of viruses and phylogenetic analysis. A highly cited researcher, he has published more than 200 original research articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Nature, Science and PNAS, and he is funded by multiple National Institutes of Health awards. He has been a faculty member at the University of Florida since 2004.